Disk Management Explained

The first key to understanding how STORM operates is to understand the STORM Vault. STORM keeps your lockers inside the Vault. An internal way that storm keeps track of all the content you are sharing on the network. There are many folders, files, and settings, which are stored in the Vault along with your game. STORM actively manages this content by tracking its location so that it can respond to secure requests to download.

To view how much space STORM is currently using, click on the little “pie” in the lower right hand side of storm. This will bring up the disk manager. There are three things to note:

Target disk space: The target disk space is the amount of disk space that storm attempts to utilize for proper operation. In typical setups, it should be set to 80% of your total drive size. On a 2 TB drive, this means setting the target disk usage to 1.6 TB. This is a “soft” number and simply tells STORM to try to keep about 1.6 TB of content on the drive at any time.

Non-storm files: This is content that is not part of storm. It should ideally be 0 because you should run the STORM vault on a dedicated drive. Some cases, like on a travel laptop, you may be forced to run storm on a C:\

STORM content: This is a breakdown of the content you have in storm

My lockers: How much content is in your locker room

Downloaded lockers: How much content you currently have in your downloaded lockers

Supporting content: These are lockers that you have told STORM to delete but that has not been removed from the disk. Refer back to the target disk usage. STORM will only delete content from the disk when the total amount of content is larger than the target disk usage.

This allows STORM to do two things:

It allows STORM to have a ‘trash can” like function. If you accidentally delete something it is typically not deleted from the disk. You can instantly get it back by simply clicking download again. Since it is still on disk, STORM simply restores the game and your ready to go.

Supporting peer-to-peer exchanges: The STORM network works best when there are as many locations to download the game from as possible. For instance, if you have downloaded a game and no longer need it click delete; this game then becomes supporting content. If another school downloads that game, your computer will be able to help provide the game to schools even after you have deleted it.

Won’t this jam up my STORM network or stop me from downloading?

No, this doesn’t cause your computer to jam in any way because STORM knows that you told it to delete the game. As STORM is downloading games for your usage, it will delete the oldest supporting content on your drive. If you download another game, STORM will delete a game out of your support. This means that on a properly operating STORM computer, you will typically see STORM’s disk usage stay constant over time.

Remember: There is no reason to manually delete content from the STORM Vault. Just set your target disk usage lower if you want STORM to use less space, but also give it as much space as you can. Peer-to-peer works best when all are pitching in!

What if I don’t think the numbers add up?

It is possible over time for STORM to lose track of pieces of deleted content. This is commonly the result of a disconnected USB drive, a faulty drive, or due to bad file permission settings on the STORM Vault (Tip: It’s best to set file permissions on the STORM Vault the same way you set shuttle drive permissions).
If you think the numbers don’t add up, do the following:

Open the disk manager in STORM

Click the “Scavenge Old/Lost/Deleted Lockers” button. This will cause STORM to search through the Vault and bring any orphaned, lost or corrupted lockers into your downloads folder. It will also restore any “supporting content” to active status. This will give you clarity in your downloads of anything in the STORM Vault.

Next, simply click to delete any lockers you don’t need. These lockers will now be tracked properly and will return to “supporting content”. They will be deleted as needed to stay at the “target” disk space.

Note: you can do the scavenge process at anytime if you feel that something is not adding up.

Other Best Practices

You should have your STORM Vault on a dedicated drive. It should not have any other content on it other than the STORM Vault

You should never manually copy video into or out of the Vault

You should never alter, delete, or change anything in the Vault

Can I look in the Vault? Sure, just don’t delete or change anything

Should I copy a game out of the Vault? No, you should click on that locker in STORM and click export